STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!

Anime titles within this category used a nausea-inducing blurry animation techniques that pisses me off. It look like motion interpolation algorithm going SERIOUSLY BAD.

Review: Angel Beats! (エンジェルビーツ)

Posted by ranpha on 6th August 2010

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: Angel Beats! (エンジェルビーツ). 3 comments

The main protagonist of this anime.

The sixth 2010 anime I have chosen for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition is Angel Beats! The previous anime in the audition has already set the benchmark at (somewhat low) 8 out of 10, therefore the question is, can this anime (and the final four unreviewed 2010 titles listed at the right sidebar) exceeded that score and then become the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title winner?

And this is the best character in this anime.

Story:-
The main male protagonist wakes up at a high school, and he finds out that he has lost all of his memories. Then a spunky female student appears and told him that he has died, and asked whether he wants to join her terrorist organization. Deciding that she is just crazy, the main protagonist walks away and encountered another female student who has white hair (read: EVIL). The main protagonist haven’t even done anything wrong but the white-haired female student suddenly stabbed him on the chest, killing him instantly. THE END.

This anime starts very slowly as you can listen to some singing, then some sob stories of the week and then some ‘disappearing’. But after a few episodes, the best character in this anime (which is not the main protagonist) takes center stage and this anime actually become more watchable. And funnier too, even if she isn’t in the scene. The anime continues with great pacing and decent story development all the way until episode 10, which focused on the said best character of this anime and resulted on her ‘disappearance’ too. At exactly that point, this anime dies with her too. And this is where my first complaint about this anime will come: the ending arc.

The ending arc is ruined by a usage of a plot device that was written in completely based on the flow of the character developments in this anime, instead of relying on the usual story developments that any other normal anime series do, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. All the plots from the previous ten episodes went up in air just like that, no links whatsoever with the ending arc. This anime can be reduced to 6 episodes and I bet you won’t miss anything major.

Then there is THAT ‘revelation’ in the final 5 minutes of the last episode. Instead of becoming a very good plot twist, the revelation managed to become utterly pointless instead, just like what you can see in the same scene in the penultimate episode of Allison & Lillia. This is a huge opportunity missed by whoever wrote the story of this anime. Think about it, if the white-haired evil female student makes that revelation in the first episode when she fatally stabbed the main protagonist, this anime would have turned out very differently. And highly likely, for the better too. This anime could have become a romance title too.

My second complaint about this anime relates to its atrocious character developments. There are so many characters in this anime whose background still remains a mystery even after the final episode finished playing. Safe to say, if any given character doesn’t have their own sob story of the week, that character simply has stagnant character developments. And this actually applies to two-thirds of the members of the terrorist organization. The best character in this anime has the best sob story of the week, and has episode 10 (best episode in this anime) dedicated solely for her alone. She is basically this anime’s own version of Ibuki Fuko.

The main protagonist attracts plenty of attention from the same gender…

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is just average. And there are no black hairs in this anime, but considering the Bleach-like universe setting, I will just probably overlook it.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is great overall. Special mention should be given to the best character of this anime, the main protagonist and that hypnotic guy who has a crush on him. A positive aspect for this anime.

Music:-
This anime has great OST but none of the OP/ED themes or the inserts are any good.

…and this is another member of his same-sex harem group.

Animation/Direction:-
After two headaches-free anime reviews in the form of Nodame Cantabile Finale and Hakuouki, the bad animation technique that plagues the first three anime titles in this audition, amongst others, made its return. To make it worse, just like Arakawa Under The Bridge, this anime also uses it in normal scenes in addition in fast-paced scenes. There, I’m slapping this tag on this anime and docked one point off this anime final evaluation.

Just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime also has some problems like jerky character animations in both normal and fast-paced scenes. And just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime has very good general animations. Some of the nature animations like falling snowflakes are really good, almost on par with Makoto Shinkai’s gigs. Choreography in all of the action scenes in this anime are just average. The director employed some unorthodox camera works especially during the terrorist organization’s mission, which is nice. That’s the only good thing he/she has done though.

The main protagonist spends a lot of time together with his captive harem members…

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Hakuouki managed to keep its front-runner status for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title. Now it is increasingly likely that the first winner of the title will not be doing so with a perfect score. Now there are only four anime titles left in this audition: Ookiku Furikabutte S2, Durarara, Working and B gata H kei. Which one will come next? You will only get the answer in the next entry.

…but the competition for the main protagonist's attention do get a little bit heated sometimes.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-ft

Review: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (バカとテストと召喚獣)

Posted by ranpha on 26th July 2010

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!, The Scream Painting spoof in anime. Tagged: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (バカとテストと召喚獣). Leave a Comment

The main protagonist and his SLR-toting sidekick. Both of them are perverted and are the best characters in this anime.

The third review in the audition to choose the first winner of the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title will be for Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, which on the surface is very similar to the previous anime reviewed here Mayoi Neko Overrun!, therefore comparisons between these two 2010 anime titles is inevitable.

A fair description of his classmates, and to a lesser extent, his schoolmates too.

Story:-
Due to unforeseen circumstances with a busty naïve maiden during the placement exam that took place at the start of the school year, our dumb-ass main protagonist was assigned into the 2nd year F(ail) class. There he meets again with the said maiden and predictably, he fell in love with her. But the class also consists of many dumbasses just like him, and they are of little help when it comes to the school’s unique event: Examination Summoning Battle or ESB (abbreviated this way from now on), which can be used to raise the class’ status.

This anime starts very strongly with its very unique and seemingly promising storyline, up until maybe 3 or 4 episodes. When the whole class was banned for 3 months from participating in the ESB event, this anime started to peter out slowly towards the ending. Then the two-phase ending arc starts at episode 11 and this anime accelerates full-throttle onwards and downwards into the chasm of mediocrity.

The ending of this anime is even worse than the crappy ending Mayoi Neko Overrun! has. It was even more retarded than the main protagonist himself. Despite the regression that happened after this anime’s strong start, the pacing of this anime is pretty much spotless before the ending. Then this anime do the reverse of what Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone has done: sharply increasing the pacing of the presentation dramatically by cramming more ESB events in the ending arc (more ESB events than the previous 10 episodes combined). Plus, the final ESB event is very stupidly retardedly and maddeningly predictable. You can see how it will end from a million miles away, and if you don’t, then the main protagonist is smarter than you.

Whoever wrote the ending is either running out of ideas or purposely tried to insult the viewers’ intelligence. I suspect it was the latter. I really do. Honest! And it doesn’t even provide a smooth transition towards the already-announced second season!

While the general storyline itself is just average (albeit a little bit better than the one in Mayoi Neko Overrun!), some of the subplots are great. This anime is a better harem and comedy than Mayoi Neko Overrun, but similarly crap in romance department. Some of the potential relationships in this anime are not pursued in more detail though, such as the relationship between the main protagonist and his Class A boyfriend (picture below). This anime needs more episodes, and I hope the second season will provide more of them so that the various subplots can be explored more.

The main protagonist's boyfriend!

The low episode count combined with larger characters cast than Mayoi Neko Overrun! ensures that character developments are less than optimal than it should be. This anime is a case where the rate of development is proportionate to the amount of airtime that a character got, with some exceptions. One of the best characters in this anime is the main protagonist, which is a given due to his airtime. But an exception should be given to another interesting character in this anime, which is the camera-toting pervert. He is simply awesome (like the silent handphone-toting character in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series) even with far less focus on his character.

This anime also made references to other anime/manga/TV shows/games ranging from Gundam to Dragon Quest. Of course, it wasn’t as much as the rapid-fire Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series though.

Yet another The Scream painting spoof in Japanese anime.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is excellent, especially for its non-female characters. It is not to say that female character designs are bad (they are better than the ones in Initial D or Hayate no Gotoku for instance) but the male character designs are on another level. One glaring exception is the main protagonist, but I will overlook this one because the others are awesome. That bishounen character who has a twin sister in Class A is definitely the best of them all, overly so. A positive aspect for this anime. Better than Mayoi Neko Overrun! and even Arakawa Under The Crazy Bridge.

And I’ll even ignore that severe lack of black hairs in this anime too. Bishies trap is awesome!

Above is our hot-blooded main protagonist favorite food that he likes to 'eat'.

Voice Acting:-
In general, voice acting in this anime is good but not great, better than Mayoi Neko Overrun! too. There are no outstanding voice acting gig(s) in this anime, and in this part, this anime is inferior to Mayoi Neko Overrun!

Music:-
A complete opposite compared to Mayoi Neko Overrun!, only the 2nd ED theme is not good. Everything else, from the OST all the way to the 1st OP/ED themes are good. A positive aspect for this anime.

Epilepsy Attack! Japan need to stop using this regressive animation technique sharpish! Did all 2010 titles uses this technique?

Animation/Direction:-
I’m slapping the STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW! tag and docked one point from this anime’s final score. Click on that category link and scroll down to previous reviews under this category to see why this category exists. This technique are only used in fast-paced scenes though, just like Mayoi Neko Overrun and unlike Arakawa Under The Bridge.

Meanwhile, animation quality in this anime is good, even in fast-paced scenes (ignoring the said technique above). Choreography in this anime is just average though. The directing, while not perfect, do experiment with some rarely-used presentation methods.

A storytelling technique more common in the Western world literature than in Japanese manga/anime.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. The next anime that will will be reviewed is the long-delayed final season of Nodame Cantabile. I particularly choose this one hoping that the aforementioned animation technique above is not present in it. The first two installments doesn’t have it, therefore I’m praying that the third one is also the same.

The unbreakable friendship between these two like-minded best characters in this anime is the cornerstone of the storyline.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-eQ

Review: Mayoi Neko Overrun! (迷い猫オーバーラン！)

Posted by ranpha on 22nd July 2010

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: Mayoi Neko Overrun! (迷い猫オーバーラン！). Leave a Comment

The indecisive main male protagonist, dragging down this anime with his indecision.

The audition to select the first winner of ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title continues with my review of Mayoi Neko Overrun!, an anime where cat-girls doesn’t exist. There are lots of real cats though, which are not relevant to the storyline in any way. The bar set by the first entry in the audition is not that high but can this second entry of the audition surpassed it?

Story:-
Our main protagonist is a high-schooler who runs a middling cake shop while his foster sister, the true owner of the shop, is nowhere to be found. The business is bad, thanks to the uselessness of the part-timers that worked under him in the cake shop. His love interest doesn’t help matters either, as she shouts abuse at him 95% of the time (in addition of being equally inept as the protagonist’s subordinates). In the verge of bankruptcy, his sister reappeared alongside a mysterious girl who says ~~‘Ni’~~ ‘nyaa’ (that the main protagonist’s sister got by typing ‘!loli’ in #chihiro@irc.rizon.net).

This anime is similar, at least in form, to Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun reviewed here a long time ago, but with a crappier story and no supernatural elements. This anime has three phases: first phase involves the main protagonist meeting the mysterious girl (the title protagonist) who has some emo issues that need to be solved. In the second phase, this anime pulled an Index where the title protagonist was relegated as a secondary character while the whole main regular cast are doing their things episodically (mostly lame things but the Saki rip-off in episode 8 is one of the best parts this anime has). In the final phase a.k.a. the ending, this anime pulled another Index where the title protagonist reappeared to take a major part in the finale. The problem is, the dual-purpose ending sucks donkey asses.

IMO, this anime is pointless. What is the reason this anime was written anyway? Is it to see a romantic relationship developing between the main male protagonist and his childhood friend? If so, at the end of this anime the arc ends up inconclusive (still-friends neutral relationship between them). Is it to focus on the title protagonist (like Naruto is, and what Index should have been)? If so, her lack of character development due to the second part of this anime ensures that this particular story arc doesn’t go anywhere, even with the ending that focused on her. Is it to showcase the harem relationship between the main male protagonist and the other three regular female characters? If so, the indecision of the main male protagonist in choosing which character he wants to sleep with ruins the arc. Is it all of the above? Well, three failures doesn’t make one success story isn’t it?

ANN has classified this anime as a harem romantic comedy. This anime failed in the first two keywords, but somewhat successful with the third one. The humor in this anime are good overall. Not up there with Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu standard, but still good. This anime also make some references to other anime/manga, notably the aforementioned Saki in episode 8, and has the first ever One Piece parody I have ever seen.

The lethargic second phase of this anime messed with the pacing of the storyline (if you can guess which one it is), and also affects the overall character developments in this anime. Only two characters survived the damaging second phase, and that would be the main male protagonist and the rich girl. The latter is the best character in this anime mainly because she is a prominent figure in the second and final phase of the anime, therefore she has the highest rate of development here. The main male protagonist also has some decent (but lesser than the rich girl’s) character development, while the title protagonist only has a minuscule amount of them due to the final phase. The less said about the main female protagonist who are stagnant from the start until the end of this anime, the better.

Unlike Arakawa Under The Bridge, no second season has been announced for this anime yet. And I think things should be kept that way.

The best character in this anime, working hard to keep this anime up.

Character Design:-
Character design in this anime is your bog standard shounen genre designs with big eyes. The female characters doesn’t have any black hairs that is supposed to be common in real-life Japan. The main protagonist has it though. He is probably the only real Japanese in this anime cast.

Voice Acting:-
Voice in this anime is just average overall, but strangely for me I am drawn to the performance of the voice actress for the main female protagonist. Shouting your lines 95% of the time sure work some wonders.

Music:-
This anime has a near total failure in this aspect. Only the parody OP theme in episode 7 is decent. Everything else, from the official OP/ED themes and the OST are forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime is yet another title that uses the blurry animation techniques I have already mentioned before, and with this blog entry, the third consecutive titles that has it. I’m making a new blog category for this awful phenomenon that seems to have become increasingly common nowadays in Japan’s anime industry. Does all 2010 anime titles (or maybe majority) uses this technique? Thinking back in time, the first half of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood doesn’t use this technique either, only the second half (all aired in 2010) having it in spades. Unlike Fullmetal Alchemist and Arakawa Under The Bridge though, this anime doesn’t use the technique in normal scenes, only in fast-paced ones. Still, one point will be deducted from the final evaluation as I have done with the past titles that has it, and will do so too in the future.

The usage of the blurry animation technique is not the only problem this anime faced. One of the very first things I noticed when I started watching this anime is that the character animations are very jerky in fast-paced scenes. And unlike the blurry animation techniques, the jerky character animation problems also happened sometimes in normal scenes too. This is weird because general animations for non-character objects (such as cars or the helicopters etc.) are excellent even in fast–paced scenes. Integration between 2D animations (that is not character animations) and CGI animations is excellent too, definitely the best implementation I have seen to date.

Choreography is nonexistent in this anime, and that’s understandable. The directing could have been better, but they has done a better job than their counterpart in Ninomiya-kun.

This anime has far better rain effects than the amateurish pitiful job in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Conclusion:-
5 out of 10. Worse than the first candidate Arakawa Under The Bridge. I wonder whether the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ will win the title with a 10 out of 10 score. As an added insurance, I will add another 2010 title into the audition lineup, titled Durarara. That makes it ten 2010 anime titles that will compete for the title, with two of them already being reviewed. So what’s next? I’ll keep that a mystery!

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-eC